Works
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Remembrance, 1989 -
Untitled, 1985
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Untitled, 1981
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Untitled, 1981
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Strange Encounter, 1985
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Barrier, 1983
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Untitled, 1988
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Untitled, circa 1980
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Dawn, 1984-85
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Untitled, 1981
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Untitled, circa 1980
Biography
A noted figure in the New York School, Friedel Dzubas was associated with the Color Field painting movement in the mid-twentieth century and continued painting until the end of his life. In the 1950s, he was part of the Greenwich Village art scene, and he was was included in the landmark exhibition, Post-Painterly Abstraction, organized by Clement Greenberg for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1964. Working in a lyrical vein, Dzubas created works that were linked in spirit to the contemplative landscapes of the nineteenth-century German painter, Caspar David Friedrich. The New York Times art critic Brian O'Dohery described his art as "a sort of delightful rococo postscript to the baroque thunder of Abstract Expressionism."
Friedel Dzubas was born in Berlin, Germany. Little is known of his childhood and early artistic training except that he studied under Paul Klee at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, where he absorbed the ideas about color that were central to Klee's teaching. In 1939, at the height of Nazi Germany, Dzubas fled to the United States. He settled initially in Chicago, where he worked as an illustrator.
By the late 1940s, he had moved to New York City, where he befriended many of the leading young painters of the day. He became close to Jackson Pollock, spending time with him in East Hampton, and he shared a studio with Helen Frankenthaler. In the 1950s, Dzubas painted with broad, painterly swirls that were associated with "mind storms" and sea surges. In the next decade, he created a series of works featuring hard-edged blocks of color, but later returned to a more expressive, spontaneous manner, described as bridging "the contemporary concerns of American abstraction with the European past."
Friedel Dzubas began exhibiting in the 1950s, starting with a solo show at Tibor de Nagy Gallery in 1952. He had solo shows subsequently at Leo Castelli Gallery in 1958 and at French and Company, New York, in 1959. In the years that followed, Dzubas had many additional solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Düsseldorf, Toronto, and other locations. Retrospectives of his art were held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1974) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1975). Dzubas participated in many important group exhibitions at venues including Leo Castelli Gallery and the Stable Gallery, where he participated in the Ninth Street show annual invitational exhibitions that were held throughout the 1950s. In addition to showing in Post-Painterly Abstraction (1964), he was represented in the Color Field Survey, held in 1975, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Dzubas received Guggenheim Fellowships in 1966 and 1968 and an award from the National Council on the Arts in 1968.
Dzubas taught and lectured at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; the Institute of Humanistic Studies, Aspen, Colorado; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; and Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Examples of his works can be viewed in numerous public collections, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; the Georgia Museum of Art, Athens; the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri; the Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, Florida; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; the Newark Museum, New Jersey; the Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey; the Portland Art Museum, Oregon; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
Friedel Dzubas was born in Berlin, Germany. Little is known of his childhood and early artistic training except that he studied under Paul Klee at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, where he absorbed the ideas about color that were central to Klee's teaching. In 1939, at the height of Nazi Germany, Dzubas fled to the United States. He settled initially in Chicago, where he worked as an illustrator.
By the late 1940s, he had moved to New York City, where he befriended many of the leading young painters of the day. He became close to Jackson Pollock, spending time with him in East Hampton, and he shared a studio with Helen Frankenthaler. In the 1950s, Dzubas painted with broad, painterly swirls that were associated with "mind storms" and sea surges. In the next decade, he created a series of works featuring hard-edged blocks of color, but later returned to a more expressive, spontaneous manner, described as bridging "the contemporary concerns of American abstraction with the European past."
Friedel Dzubas began exhibiting in the 1950s, starting with a solo show at Tibor de Nagy Gallery in 1952. He had solo shows subsequently at Leo Castelli Gallery in 1958 and at French and Company, New York, in 1959. In the years that followed, Dzubas had many additional solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Düsseldorf, Toronto, and other locations. Retrospectives of his art were held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1974) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1975). Dzubas participated in many important group exhibitions at venues including Leo Castelli Gallery and the Stable Gallery, where he participated in the Ninth Street show annual invitational exhibitions that were held throughout the 1950s. In addition to showing in Post-Painterly Abstraction (1964), he was represented in the Color Field Survey, held in 1975, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Dzubas received Guggenheim Fellowships in 1966 and 1968 and an award from the National Council on the Arts in 1968.
Dzubas taught and lectured at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; the Institute of Humanistic Studies, Aspen, Colorado; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; and Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Examples of his works can be viewed in numerous public collections, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; the Georgia Museum of Art, Athens; the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri; the Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, Florida; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; the Newark Museum, New Jersey; the Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey; the Portland Art Museum, Oregon; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
Press
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Friedel Dzubas
The Slow Unfolding: Dzubas' Final Abstractions Lincoln Glenn GalleryLaura Horne, Tussle Magazine, September 3, 2025 -
He Shared a Studio With Helen Frankenthaler. Now, Friedel Dzubas Shines on His Own
In New York, Lincoln Glenn Gallery is set to stage a sweeping solo of the late artist's work from the 1980s.Annikka Olsen, Artnet, August 19, 2025
Exhibitions
Publications
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